Harmonising Maritime Education and Training at Sea and Ashore

Reza Ziarati¹, Martin Ziarati² and Ugurcan Acar²

¹TUDEV Institute of Maritime Studies, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey

rziarati@tudevedu.com

²Centre for Factories of the Future, Coventry University Technology Park,

Coventry, UK

martin.ziarati@c4ff.co.uk

ugurcan.acar@c4ff.co.uk

ABSTRACT

The IMO developed the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping (STCW) that includes the minimum requirements for the maritime education and

training (MET) of seafarers in 1978. There have been several major and minor amendments;

most recent revisions were announced in June 2010.

There are three areas of concern; one is whether MET providers implement and maintain STCW

requirements correctly, second is how these standards are monitored, and third why there is so

much focus on minimum standards?

The IMO has passed the responsibility for STCW implementation to national governments and

the European Union (EU) has established European Maritime Safety Agency to ensure the

STCW standards are implemented in the EU member states. EMSA has widened its remit and is

now monitoring STCW in countries outside the EU. Review of EMSA’s work has found that

there are countries or institutions that do not implement the STCW correctly.

To address the stated concerns UniMET project was initiated. UniMET intends to unify the core

of MET and encourage the attainment of higher standards. This is being achieved by making sure

that partner MET institutions go beyond the STCW and address some of the identified

deficiencies of the STCW.

UniMET is based on the successful and internationally recognised Safety On Sea (SOS- 2005-

07) project and embraces several recent successful EU projects such as MarTEL, EGMDSS,

TRAIN 4Cs and intends to integrate the results of the newly completed EU projects SURPASS

and MAIDER. The intention is to incorporate the outcomes of three on-going EU projects,

CAPTAINS, Sail Ahead and MarTEL Plus.

This paper will also report on the findings of Sail Ahead project concerning the integration of

seafarers’ prior learning with the requirements of jobs ashore. Both projects are expected to

make the profession attractive to young people.

Keywords: Maritime Education and Training unification, UniMET, Master Class Standards

mailto:rziarati@tudevedu.commailto:martin.ziarati@c4ff.co.ukmailto:ugurcan.acar@c4ff.co.uk

1. Introduction

Background to UniMET and Rational for its Development

The human factor is the most important element in merchant shipping which directly affects the safety

and security at sea. A well-educated and trained workforce is necessary for a strong and successful water

transportation industry. Human factor also affects the competiveness of the shipping companies. The

maritime education and training (MET) influences the quality of education of seafarers and their well-

being in the future. Seafaring is an international profession and that is the reason why IMO established

the common standards for seafarers’ education and training. According to IMO (Ziarati, 2006) 80% of

accidents at sea are caused by human error. It is reported that mistakes are usually made not because of

faulty, deficient or inadequate regulations, but because the regulations and standards, that do exist, have

been ignored. The IMO accident analysis reports (cited in Ziarati, 2007) clearly indicate the causes of

many of the accidents at sea are due to deficiencies in education and training of seafarers or disregard for

current standards and regulations as well as poor delivery of existing standards. A review of research

(Ziarati 2007) has identified several major deficiencies in the current international standards (see for

instance www.martel.pro; www.surpass.pro; www.maider.pro).

The industry is facing shortages of well qualified officers primarily due to young people not to choose a

seafaring career or leaving the career for land based jobs. Considering the aging profile of the current

seafarer nearing an average of 45, the solution requires a concerted and a radical approach by all

concerned in the maritime industry. The shipping industry needs to be an Industry of Choice (IOC) for

the younger generation and, shipping companies recognised as Employers of Choice (EOC) in order to

attract and keep the young generation in the worldwide shipping companies (Cahoon and Haugstetter,

2008, sited in Kaptanoglu, 2009).

2. Why UniMET? The Key Development Issues for MET

The key issues addressed by UniMET are:

Development of a unified system consisting of several leading MET models covering the whole

range of practices observed throughout the world identifying in parallel a number of good

practices. The unified system would embrace the latest IMO and EU requirements and goes

beyond the minimum standard set by STCW. The new system known as UniMET should

provide a yard stick for organisation such as IMO and agencies such as EMSA to establish if

STCW requirements have been fully implemented and if these standards have exceeded in any

institutions, to report if there are indicators to identify any areas where higher standards are

applied.

Creation of a European Credit Transfer mechanism based on recent European agreements and

realisation of European Credit systems for vocational elements of the UniMET.

Provision of simple but flexible and comprehensive learning time facilitates the delivery of 4, 6

or 8 units per year. The system would allow for a range of variation as the overall year credit for

knowledge requirement and vocational elements are based on current EU practice.

http://www.martel.pro/http://www.surpass.pro/http://www.maider.pro/

A greater focus is on automation system application and control and on emergency situation.

Development of a range of comprehensive set of scenarios for emergency situations and

automation system and components are included in UniMET programmes.

Provision of a range of maritime English material and a set of comprehensive maritime English

test to ensure there is a measure to determine the level of competency of seafarers’ command of

English language in the context of their profession.

Development of a set of e-learning platforms as examples of how these platforms could be

developed for distant access to material that can improve safety at sea and make learning more

user-centred.

Making the profession more attractive by developing tools would help young people to work at

sea and onshore through their career as merchant navy officers.

Development of a novel quality assurance system with a set of tangible quality criteria focused

on the need of the learner.

Working in conjunction with leading awarding, accrediting and licensing bodies to ensure

UniMET is recognised worldwide and UniMET qualifications are accepted throughout the

world.

Since the UniMET programmes and courses are expected to be recognised worldwide, this

would allow surpluses from one European country to work in others where there are shortages;

and since, there are pathways for seafarers to work onshore, this would make the profession

more attractive to young people. Provision of online e-learning and e-assessment facilities

would also make the seafaring more attractive and allow remote access a number of learning

material.

It is worth pointing out that UniMET is supported by MariFuture (www.marifuture.org), a

platform integrating innovation, education and research in MET and providing the latest

development in Europe.

Last but by no means least, is the development of PC based learning material for those

institutions which have no or little access to bridge and/or Engine-room simulators. UniMET

partnership is proud to have developed a range of learning material for PCs in parallel to the

development of materials for ship simulators.

3. Challenges facing the Shipping Industry

Officer shortages

http://www.marifuture.org/

There are acknowledged shortages of merchant navy officers, maritime business professionals

and marine scientists and technologists (Ziarati, 2003). There are two ways of considering the

shortages. One method is those predicted by organisation such as BIMCO/ISF. According to

BIMCO/ISF (2005) the additional number (estimated shortages) of merchant navy officers

needed worldwide is 27000. Same report noted possible shortages reaching 46000 officers in

2015. The BIMCO/ISF estimated shortages of officer in 2010 are not dissimilar to the

shortages reported in 2005 if different assumptions used by them are taken into consideration.

A good review of shortages and OECD figures are given in Ziarati (MariFuture project –

www.marifuture.org).

The other method proposed by Urkmez (2005) is by reviewing the tonnage for world maritime

trade. OECD in 2004 reported the tonnage to be:

2001 Year 755.600.000 DWT

Sept. 2005 883. 900.000 DWT (%18)

Orders 231.000.000 DWT

2010 Forecast 1.100.000.000 DWT

Urkmez (2005) relying purely on the number of ship orders and scrap (recycled) numbers

estimated the shortage of officer worldwide to be around 100000 and those by the Turkish fleet

around 5000 by the year 2010. Urkmez (ibid) shortage figures are a great deal closer to Drewry

Consultation shortage figure of 83000 for officers as quoted by the President of IMO, Mr

Mitropoulus, in 2009. Turkey has a massive surplus of ratings and a shortage of officers,

particularly Marine Engineers (OECD, 2003, 2005 and 2007). This means that the manpower

resources in this sector needs to be corrected by producing more officers and giving

opportunities to some Ratings with the potential to receive additional education and training and

become officers. However, the massive increase of maritime faculties and courses has to large

extent redress the balance in Turkey. This shortage situation was particularly remedied by

TUDEV, recruiting over 1000 cadets over a three-year period, during the 2004-2008 alone.

Learning from previous research

It was also noted that there have been several research reports which have pointed out that while

some countries are applying good practices there are those that need support. A study by

(Torkel, 2004) reports that 25% of the world fleet was responsible for more that 50% of shipping

accidents around the world. The study notes that the top 25% of the safest ships were involved

in just 7% of all accidents. The University of Technology and Science in Norway (Ziarati,

2003), reports that by improving the quality of the world fleet to the same level as those in the

safest 25% category, there might be an overall reduction of 72% in shipping accidents.

International Standards

The current international Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) was recently revised and a good review of the changes is

given in Yongxing (2009) (sited in Ziarati 2010 – See www.marifuture.org development papers,

http://www.marifuture.org/

October 2010). These standards are the minimum level of education and training for seafarers

worldwide. While minimum standards should be respected what is needed is to aim for higher

standards and seek excellence rather than embrace lowest possible standards.

The Higher education institutions providing maritime training worldwide are responding to

these minimum requirements. Another regulation that will affect maritime training is the new

International Maritime Labour Convention adopted in Geneva on February, 2006 and its recent

revision in 2012. It is considered as the fourth pillar of international maritime regulation; the

other three being the conventions on Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), MARPOL and the

STCW which is related to seafarers’ knowledge, skill, and competence minimum requirements.

The Two Main Problems

There several challenges to MET providers and those who use their products and services.

However, the two main problem areas concerning the seafarers in Europe are shortage of the

seafaring officers and the quality of MET. Many efforts have been put into finding solutions to

the shortage of seafaring officers amongst these were the emergence of many new maritime

institutions and the expansion of existing resources. The number of seafarers being deployed in

Europe is significantly increasing. Although officer shortages still continues to be a problem in

some of the Western countries, the significance of this problem area is gradually receding in

Eastern Europe, nevertheless, the quality of MET is still a major issue, here quality means fitness

for purpose and the need to ensure quality is fit not by the administration or institutions for

saying so but through peer assessment such as external accreditation of MET programmes by

professional institutions or awarding bodies. If the quality issues are resolved in identified

regions of Europe then there will countries in these areas will help create a bank of European

seafarers available to overcome shortage in other regions of the Western world.

European Qualification Framework

The global maritime community have become very keen on vocational qualifications. These

qualifications have become an important subject to be visited and reconsidered not only by

Western countries but also by the others globally. European Union (EU) has established

Qualification Framework (EQF) and all members and cooperating countries have started to adopt

this system in their national occupational framework. The main aim of the EQF is to ensure

quality of manpower to support industry is the same throughout Europe. EQF establishes

standards for a safe, secure and productive work environment.

Europe needs to fully embrace by what is meant to create a MET system that is fit for purpose.

Not all seafaring officers need to be university graduates and at the other end of spectrum we

need seafarers with higher qualification beyond university diploma and degrees.

European Maritime Safety Agency

Whilst IMO legislates and introduces standards such as STCW, it has not and probably would

not monitor the implementation of its own minimum standards. IMO has a huge inertia and often

has been reactive to shipping industry’s needs. It has passed the responsibility for implementing

and monitoring of its standards, rules and conventions to the national governments. The problem

is that IMO established the STCW after several major accidents and SOLAS and MARPOL also

came about after major accidents. The core of STCW was developed in 1978 and since then

there has been several cosmetic changes to these standards, the most significant being the one in

2010, many of the changes forced upon IMO by larger and more progressive companies

canvassing through several national government delegation to the IMO committees. Although

the number of accidents and incidents at sea are on the decrease, the number of accidents and

incidents due to automation failure has been on the increase and those due to communication

errors and linguistic problems have remained substantial Trekner, (2002), Ziarati, (2006).

Intertanko recently reported (SAS 2010) to experience on engine stop per week; this one accident

per week waiting to happen for company alone; one accident too many!

European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) was established to ensure safety at sea throughout

the Union and further afield. One area of focus for EMSA (2003) has been the enforcement of

STCW throughout Europe and in countries providing seafarers to Europe or visiting Europe’s

waters or ports. EMSA is involved in the application of EQF standards in the maritime sector

and has, as stated earlier, started to inspect and evaluate quality of the MET in member and

candidate countries.

EMSA made a detailed study on the MET systems in 2010 and submitted a report to EU

countries and ship-owners about the findings of this study. It is clearly stated that some countries

are not able to meet STCW standards and seafarers from these countries are not eligible to be

employed on board EU ships. For instance, Certificate of Competencies (CoC) issued by Georgia

are refused. Another example is the EMSA formal requested for the closure of 12 MET

institutions in Philippines which are found to be sub-standard unless they improve their quality.

There have also been quality issues with several EU member states.

Not only the EU member states but also other developed countries such as US, Canada, Japan are

very keen on stamping out on the low quality seafarers. There is no employment opportunity for

the foreign seafarers in these countries unless they have guaranteed high level of competency

standards. They, similar to EMSA, are directly involved with the MET systems in the countries

which provide seafarers to them and cooperate with to ensure the quality of the standards are as

expected.

Immediate Technology Issues

The new technology provides us to use Pseudo and real simulation systems. The excessive use of

simulators is strongly advised by STCW. Use of simulators requires adequate equipment, highly

experienced instructors and well-designed scenarios. A campaign has been started to upgrade

existing simulator systems which will fully support course programme. CBT (Computer Base

Training) and CBTM (Computer Base Training Assessment) have become essential elements of

the MET to provide more realistic training for cadets and seafarer working in the maritime

industry. The computer assisted systems have been also deployed to create new scenarios and

make research studies in support of the maritime industry.

It is recognised that not all MET institutions have sophisticated bridge and Engine-room

simulators and those that have some have limited access to them. The real problem is that not

any of the simulator exercises observed in many of the visits is based on real accidents to

incidents these include some of the leading maritime authorities who award or their certificates

are used as the basis for CoC/OOW qualifications. It seems that many of the tests are based on

exercises rather than real accidents or incidents. Furthermore, many of these examiners have not

worked as seamen for substantial number of years. If was for these reason the several major EU

projects were initiated to overcome both technology related problems viz., lack of realistic

scenarios for simulators and finding a way to increase access to simulators.

4. The Situation in Europe

Ignoring the current economic crisis and considering the trends, the European fleet is growing

rapidly and shortage of qualified seafaring officers is estimated to be over 30,000 in the next 5 to

10 years. The shortages reported in BIMCO/ISF reports of 2005 and 2010 are not that dissimilar

(Urkmez, 2005. Enforcement of ISM and ISPS applications forced ship owners and the

Government to take rapid measures to review their ship management applications. The

emergence of high value and modern ships in service had necessitated an urgent need for

qualified seafarers to service the European maritime industry. As reported earlier there are also

severe shortages for qualified seafarers particularly relating to specialized vessels.

The provision of high standard qualifications for seafarers is important not only for the EU

domestic demands but also for external demand. Europe has a huge number of young populations,

and the economy cannot provide sufficient employment opportunity for continent’s young people.

There European countries which have considered export of manpower as a serious opportunity to

solve unemployment problem (DPT, 2006). The world shipping sector is a ripe employment area

well suited for exploitation by the some of the European governments and the maritime

Communities to create employment opportunities for their young unemployed people.

5. UniMET Project

Europe needs knowledge and resources to participate in or initiate many innovative projects in the

maritime field. Considering many of these projects involves cooperation with EU bodies and

similar maritime centres in other countries, the continent need to trigger exchange of information

and knowledge between European countries and worldwide.

Following many studies, in coordination and cooperation with several European Countries, and a

number of visit to MET institutions in Norway, England, Scotland, USA and contacts were

established with maritime institutions in Sweden, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria,

China, Japan and several other countries considering the variation in MET practices the need for

harmonising the these differing approaches was considered necessary. The review of maritime

practices in these countries concluded that the existing provisions in Europe, while in many

aspects are satisfactory and that there are pockets of excellence in several noted practices, overall

it was short of what are required and existing maritime institutions needed to rapidly increase

their current capacities and improve their provisions to standards expected by international and

European research, awarding, accrediting and licensing authorities.

In addition to the national monitoring and evaluation system at national level, European

countries have accepted EMSA (European Maritime safety Agency) inspections. EMSA has

conducted inspections on many maritime administration systems of many EU and non-EU

countries in particular on education, training and certification system. A review of EMSA’s

reports clear shows that there are a range of differences and practices in implementing the IMO

minimum standards for maritime education and training (STCW) in the various countries.

EMSA also focuses on minimum standards.

The EMSA’s report indicates some deficiencies regarding the MET systems in several countries

and refers to some of the actions taken by the administration and/or institutions to correct these

deficiencies. The reports state that most of the deficiencies regarding maritime training,

certification and monitoring which were indicated in the previous visits were subsequently seen

to be correct in the second or subsequent visit(s). While EMSA should be commended for trying

to monitor the IMO STCW as a European safety agency it should focus on any means to improve

the safety of ships at sea. There are always more than one party involved in accidents and

incidents and on this basis EMSA can not and should not ignore the quality of MET in other

countries with ships passing through its waters and visiting its ports, while at the same time be

pro-active and progressive in seeing ahead, through reviewing and/or promoting research work

to promote safety at sea and ports.

The main question raised by the research reported in this paper was how and why there are so

many differing MET practices particularly considering the core of these practices is satisfying

the IMO STCW and related requirements. A review of the MET in several European countries

indicated that there is possibility of harmonising the MET programmes and developing a unified

system for presenting several models for consideration not only by European countries but by all

IMO member states. The core of the harmonised MET could still be the latest STCW presented

by IMO revised Model courses supplemented by several good practices within unified quality

assurance and control system underpinned by a set of quality criteria. To ensure there is a

harmonised MET practice UniMET proposal was drafted and submitted to the EU for funding.

An overview of UniMET project is presented in Figure 1. The unit structure is flexible and the

UniMET Credit Transfer Scheme is based on current practice in the EU. Table 1 shows the

credit system within the EQF. The pathways for Officer Class l to 2 and to Master Class and

Captain of Industry are also set as shown in Tables 2 and 3. Table 4 shows the UniMET

corresponding ECTS and ECVET and Variation of Number of Units in a year. The Top-up

system show Tables 2 and 3 are 2+1 or 3+1 schemes; so that cadets from one institution could at

certain points exit the system and they wish study in one of the UniMET partner institution or go

to sea and return ot continue their studies at higher level.

6. Sail Ahead Project

Seafaring is a challenging and extraordinary profession having dangerous work conditions, long-

term stays, long working hours and job instability. They work in alternating 4 hour shifts and

often have to face temperature changes of over 30° one some occasions. They mostly need to

work in such condition in order to remain in the profession. Captains, including junior and senior

officers, need to have various managerial, technical and administrative duties as per their

contractual requirements. EU reports that there is a reluctance of young generation to join sea as

IMO has being campaigning to attract more young generation to work at sea with “GOTOSEA”

project. To remedy the problem and to encourage young generation to join sea profession by

providing them a second career opportunity, Sail Ahead project was funded by European

Commission.

The project identified the transferable skills that Captains (including senior and junior officers)

develop both during their training at maritime academy and at sea. The curriculums of each

partners’ countries were examined to identify the competencies developed both at academy and

at sea. In parallel, a set of questionnaire were developed for Deck Cadets/Officers/Master to

obtain feedback about their point of view on the competences they developed. These

questionnaires were supported and validated by a complementary questionnaire grid for maritime

lecturers.

Findings of Transferable Skills Report

The curricula of Turkey, UK, Greece, Finland, and Poland were cross-referenced with the IMO

Model courses (7.03 for officers and 7.01 for senior officers/captains). The comparison showed

that there was no appreciable difference between the set of knowledge and skills developed

among the countries selected. The differences were more at what took place beyond the

minimum standards set by STCW (or IMO model courses 7.03 and 7.01).

Comparison of curricula was followed by a comprehensive questionnaire to find out the view of

key target groups. 414 responses were received at Captains and Deck Officer Level, 337 were

received from cadets, overall representing a good crossing section of the current maritime

community in the world. One of the important finding of the questionnaire was to see where they

would like to work.

Captains’ response

Cadet’s response

Figure 1 – Response of cadets and captains on where they would like to work

It has become apparent that from the findings that the more time a seafarer spends at sea; the

more reluctant he is to stay and work off-shore. Masters are one of the ranks that more than 75

percent of them wish to have some sort of employment opportunity ashore.

The results indicate that seafarers believe that they have required skills to work ashore. The

results of the questionnaire show that in general sea officers are stronger in business, people,

personal and vocational skills while being comparatively weaker in analytical skills. They are

also of the view that maritime industry needs more seafarers to be employed ashore. However,

they agree that they might need to acquire additional skills. Introducing courses to bridge the

knowledge and skill differences at sea and onshore they consider being useful. They are

convinced that the maritime industry would benefit employing seafarers as this would improve

the quality of the workforce in shore-based jobs.

Sail Ahead project primarily is concerned with the development of an online career guidance tool

to provide second career opportunities to seafarers. Opportunity of working at sea and ashore is

expected to make the profession more attractive to young people.

7. Conclusion

UniMET is not just a set of harmonised MET programmes. It is an entire and comprehensive

MET practice with its own unique and innovative quality assurance and control system derived

from best practices in world. It contains its own online platform with several variation of MET

programmes all harmonised around the IMO STCW and in line with IMO model courses. What

is also significant with regard to UniMET is its whole suite of good practice courses, all with

their own online, yet independent, platform. It was developed after reviewing all previous

projects and attempts to unifying MET programmes or practices in Europe and worldwide. It

came about as a result of several major research and development projects followed by over

twenty visits to many countries and their MET institutions. The paper here only refers to current

map of UniMET which includes tools such as Sail Ahead which has its own online guidance

helping seafarers to find jobs onshore.

Sail Ahead is expected to make the profession more attractive to young people. Furthermore, a

future map (including a sustainability plan) has been developed for UniMET and work has

already commenced to realise the next stage of its development. One area is to bring the less

privilege seafarers also into the scheme of UniMET and to this end, work is currently being

carried out to provide similar opportunities to Ratings and giving some of them the opportunity

of becoming officers. There are also projects which will link up with UniMET to identify

current good practices and ensure their outcomes are disseminated and incorporated into

UniMET. UniMET and every individual element of it have already been tested in real

environments and many of constituents parts are being used worldwide. There are clear

indicators that UniMET and its good practices will receive international recognition.

Figure 2 – UniMET Framework

Good Practice Courses (EDH, NARAS, ERM and

BRM)

UniMET

IMO Revised Model Courses

STCW Safety Courses

(Fire Fighting, etc)

UniMET Partner Programmes

SOS Programmes UK Programmes (Benchmarks)

EGMDSS (Maritime Communication)

UniMET e-learning Platform

SEA TRAINING Programme

(Officer & Rating Occupational Standards)

CAPTAINS and MARENG Courses

SAIL AHEAD Online Job

Profiles

Revised Sea Training

Portfolios/Diplomas

MariFuture Platform

(Dissemination, Mainstreaming, Exploitation and

Sustainability)

ILO Requirements

UniMET Programmes Beyond STCW

IMO Requirements

Master Class (Degree) Enhance UniMET

Programmes (Masters/ Mphils /PhDs)

Captains of industry

MarTEL (Maritime

English Standards) E-assessment

Platform

New Safety Courses

(SURPASS, MAIDER, etc.)

Table 1 – UniMET Credit Transfer System

Table 2 –Additional Units for Master Class (Degree)

Table 3 – Additional Units for Master Class (Top up)

Table 4 – UniMET ECTS and ECVET and Variation of Number of Units in a year

1 Year = 8 Units of study.

1 unit = 7.5 Credits

Each Unit = 60 hours of learning (Nominal)

1 Year = 6 Units of study.

1 unit = 10 Credits

Each Unit = 90 hours of learning (Nominal)

1 Year = 4 Units of study.

1 unit = 15 Credits

Each Unit = 120 hours of learning (Nominal)

NB:1 Officer Class 1 (Equivalent to IMO 7.03 and 7.04)

Officer Class 2 (Equivalent to IMO 7.01 and 7.02)

NB2: 1 UniMET Credit = 1 ECTS Credit = 1 CVET Credit

NB: 3 1 Year = 60 ECTS/CVET

1 ECTS/CVET is 25-30 learning hours, self study or

practice. One semester is 15 weeks.

NB:4 Maximum 30 ECTS can be delivered in one semster.

NB:5 Normally 2 semester in 1 year. 3 semester may be

applied for Level 5

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AUTHORS:

Prof. Dr. Reza Ziarati, BSc(Eng) PhD(Eng) CertEd FIEE FIMechE FIMarEST CEng

Professor Dr Reza Ziarati is the Principal of Institute of Maritime Studies, Turkey, Executive

Director of Centre for Factories of the Future, UK, and PhD Supervisor of Several Programmes

including at De Montfort University, UK and Oxford Brookes University, UK.

He previously served as Director of Oxford Brookes University/Dogus Institute, Istanbul,

Turkey, Dean of Faculty of Sciences, Head of Department of Computer Engineering and Pro

Vice Chancellor (External Relations) of Dogus University, Executive Director of Centre for

Factories of the Future, External Examiner for higher degrees, degrees and BTEC/Edexcel

programmes.

He holds a number of directorships and industrial professorships. Chaired and participated in a

number of international consortiums, conferences, business programmes and industrial

partnerships.

He has over 80 major papers and/or articles and awarded a number of national and international

prizes.

Prof. Dr. Reza Ziarati, Principal

TUDEV Institute of Maritime Studies

Email: rziarati@tudevedu.com Tel: +90 (0) 216 447 00 79 Fax: +90 (0) 216 446 70 05

Address: Tuzla İstasyon Mah.,Hacioğlu Sok., 34940.Tuzla, İstanbul,Turkey

Dr Martin Ziarati, BA Hons (Business Economics), PhD (Engineering)

Dr Ziarati has been a Director and Head of maritime education and training at the Centre for

Factories of the Future (C4FF) for a number of years.

He is the coordinator of the MarEdu and MariFuture networks. He has undertaken coordination

activities for a number of EU funded projects. He is presently the project director for six ongoing

EU funded projects including two Maritime English focused projects: MarTEL Plus and

CAPTAINS. C4FF lead the MarTEL Plus project which intends to establish International

standards for Maritime English with a total of 22 EU partners.

He has written a number of International referred papers in the area of Maritime English. He has

also had written a number of articles printed in International maritime publications in the area of

Maritime Communications. He is a member of the Excellence Club, represented by leading

innovative companies in the region and a personal member of the EU Research and Development

funding group, both established by the regional development agency.

mailto:rziarati@tudevedu.com

He is a Working Group Member, MILC Technology & Innovation Group, MILC (Marine

Industries Leadership Council (UK’s forum for the industries’ key stakeholders supporting UK

Government Policy Making)

He is a visiting Senior Research Fellow and advisor on a number of ongoing PhDs at De

Montfort University, UK

His recent activities include being a member of the organisation committee for an International

workshop and session chair of an International conference.

Dr. Martin Ziarati, Director

Centre for Factories of the Future

Email: martin.ziarati@c4ff.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 2476236734, Fax: +44 (0) 2476470060

Address: Centre for Factories of the Future, Barclays Venture Centre, Sir William Lyons Road,

Coventry CV4 7EZ, United Kingdom

Mr Ugurcan Acar, BSc (Marine Studies), OOW (Officer of Watch)

He is a maritime project officer in the maritime education and training division at Centre for

Factories of the Future (C4FF).

He has worked as a researcher on a number of EU funded projects, including six ongoing EU

funded projects: UniMET, M’aider, Surpass, Sail Ahead, Captains and MarTEL Plus. He is

supporting the coordinators in the ongoing development of the MariFuture network.

He has written a number of International papers in the area of Maritime training and education

including Colregs. He has dual Unlimited Certificates of Competency, one from UK and one

from Turkey. He has two years experience at sea as merchant navy deck officer and junior

officer serving Oil, Container and Bulk carriers. He has also been involved in mentoring Turkish

students at Glasgow Collage of Nautical Studies, UK.

Mr. Ugurcan Acar, Project Officer

Centre for Factories of the Future

Email: ugurcan.acar@c4ff.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 2476236734, Fax: +44 (0) 2476470060

Address: Centre for Factories of the Future, Barclays Venture Centre, Sir William Lyons Road,

Coventry CV4 7EZ, United Kingdom

mailto:martin.ziarati@cff.co.ukmailto:ugurcan.acar@c4ff.co.uk